Biblical Hebrew Forum

["JP vd Giessen (FOL)" <janpieter AT giessen.fol.nl>]

Vadim,

As said by Karl, Eden wasn't a desert. But even in the Negev desert of Israel
(31'N), dew falls on about 200 days each year in the most suitable
locations.(Zangvill, A. 1996. Six years of dew observations in the Negev
Desert, Israel, Jornal Arid Environments, 32, 361-71) Measurements, by Jacobs
AF, Heusinkveld BG, Berkowicz SM, carried out during September and October
1997 showed that the daily amounts of dew ranged between 0.1 mm/night and 0.3
mm/night within the interdune area, enough to serve as an important source of
moisture for plants, biological crusts, insects and small animals.
If leaf wetness duration (caused by the dew) exceeds a certain period of time,
then under certain other conditions (e.g. air temperature), measures must be
taken in order to protect the plants against fungal diseases (Baier, W.
(1966). Studies on dew formation under semiarid conditions. Agric. Meteorol.,
3: 103_112.; Wallin, J.R. (1967). Agrometeorological aspects of dew. Agric.
Meteorol., 4: 85-102; Jacobs, A.F.G., Van Pul, W.A.J. & Van Dijken, A. (1990).
Similarity dew profiles within a corn canopy. J. Applied Meteorol., 29:
1300-1306).

And yes the amount of dew is not enough for the growing but without it there
was no growing of the crop in the after summer at all!!

Jan Pieter van de Giessen

On Wed, 5 Oct 2005 20:45:02 +0300, Vadim Cherny wrote
> What I was able to find out: dew level in the Negev is 0.1mm daily 
> in late summer (west wind season, wind coming from the sea). 
> Extrapolated, that comes to 3.5cm/year. Since we extrapolated the 
> peak dew, actually it is much less. Now, even inland Sahara receives 
> 1.5cm/year of rain, and is notoriously out of shrubs. Very arid 
> deserts, where to all purposes no plants exist, receive 5cm/year. 
> Overall, dew possibly sustain plants for short periods, but plants 
> do not grow on dew.
> 
> Vadim Cherny